The instant floor nozzles and fire fighting system are adapted to provide a fixed fire fighting system and method for industrial complexes, in particular complexes having expensive equipment and/or personnel whose protection could profit from a significant discharge of fire fighting fluid from trenches in the floor, and where protection may be optimized by having nozzle discharges shaped to optimally cover and protect specified equipment or areas.
Explosions frequently accompany industrial fires and may disable portions or all of fixed sprinkler systems mounted on ceilings or walls, as well as floor mounted monitor systems. Industrial fires and related explosions, however, typically do not affect or disable equipment and apparatus stationed in trenches in an industrial floor. Fire fighting nozzles working out of trenches, thus, can likely more reliably protect equipment and personnel. Trench systems, further, can possibly cover equipment from preferable angles and locations, as compared to sprinkler systems installed in ceilings or walls or fixed monitors stationed around floors. Further again, industrial fires at times “settle” on a floor of a facility. A floor nozzle system, installed in floor drainage trenches, is well positioned to address the settled fire. As an additional advantage, a trench fire fighting system can offer superior protection to personnel walkways during an emergency.
A prior art system for floor nozzles is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,181,767 and 6,371,212, inventor Eldon D. Jackson. The floor nozzle of the Jackson system was initially or primarily designed to meet needs of aircraft hangars. Floor nozzles for aircraft hangars are required to keep their discharges low, below the wings and engines of the aircraft. This can be a stringent design requirement.
Jackson solved problems of prior art hangar nozzle systems that were either (1) pop-up trench nozzles (which created a personnel hazard and possibly malfunction issues); or (2) floor stationed oscillating monitors and nozzles (which could become bumped and moved and misaligned and blocked by equipment); or (3) fixed trench systems (that simply disgorged foam, as opposed to having a nozzle that “threw” foam, and which had poor or slow foam dispensing characteristics.)
Jackson teaches a fixed trench nozzle solution that is permanently situated at optimal locations in floor trenches and need not pop up to provide adequate discharge patterns. The Jackson design avoids creating personnel hazards as well as malfunction or bumping or misaligning or blocking issues. The Jackson fixed trench nozzle is staged flush with the floor and provides a “nozzle,” as opposed to a simple foam disgorgement system, which nozzle can discharge foam essentially laterally and in 360°, with significant range.
Jackson's fixed trench nozzle installed flush in the floor is taught to be constructed to bear significant weight. E.g. Jackson's deflector and nozzle barrel are taught to be constructed to be able to bear heavy loads placed on them and their grating by aircraft or the like passing over the floor. Jackson has proved his design's utility by testing.
The Jackson fixed trench nozzle with weight-bearing design, however, provides no adjustable gap, or adjustable K factor, for the nozzle. Removing the nozzle barrel from the trench leaves the grating no longer flush with the floor, providing a personnel hazard. The weight-bearing requirement itself is a significant restriction on design.
The instant inventors determined to develop an alternate trench nozzle to the Jackson design without the full weight bearing requirement of the Jackson system while retaining a 360° predominantly lateral discharge capability, as appropriate for aircraft hangars, if desired. An adjustable gap on K factor and permanently flush grating were also design objectives.
As a result, the instant inventors developed and successfully tested a trench nozzle system able to be permanently stationed at optimum locations in trenches, providing a grating flush with the floor when the nozzle barrel is removed and providing a capability of discharging foam essentially laterally, if desired, and in 360°. At least the nozzle barrel is attached to the grating in a non-weight bearing fashion. In a preferred embodiment a bafflehead is also attached in a non-weight bearing fashion. The design permits providing the nozzle with an adjustable K factor, or adjustable gap, and permits the removal of the nozzle barrel from the trench without destroying the flushness of the floor grating. The design provides an annular discharge in lieu of a plurality of solid bore discharges.
The inventors were required to test their design to prove that the design could perform satisfactorily, including discharging essentially laterally and in 360° and with a requisite range. The ultimate testing provided favorable results.
To summarize the inventors perceived three disadvantages with the Jackson system. (1) The Jackson nozzle barrel must be constructed of significant weight-bearing, compression-bearing materials, without regard to more appropriate materials for constructing nozzle barrels and possibly baffleheads. (2) The Jackson nozzle barrel could not be removed from the trench without disturbing the flushness of the floor grating, a safety factor. (3) The K factor of the Jackson nozzle could not be adjusted.
The inventors' tests indicate that the new nozzle design could achieve essentially lateral radial patterns, as required for delivering fire suppressant to a floor area of an aircraft hangar without discharging at a height that impermissibly impinges upon aircraft itself. Further, a variety of discharge patterns could be achieved, depending upon the particular equipment in an industrial facility to be protected. As a further advantage, the nozzle barrel at least, and preferably a bafflehead also, could be constructed of appropriate material without regard to high compression weight-bearing restrictions. The nozzle discharge pattern could be adjusted by adjusting a stream shaper and/or by adjusting the bafflehead—barrel gap, the nozzle K factor, and/or by designing grating portions and/or bafflehead ports for shaping the nozzle discharge. The nozzle barrel could be removed from the trench without affecting the flushness of the grating and floor.
The instant design diverges significantly from the Jackson design in two structural features. (In the following use of the term “nozzle” will be understood to include all significantly attached fluid conduit defining structure beginning with the nozzle barrel, and will be understood to include not only the nozzle barrel but also any attached bafflehead and/or significant deflector structure and/or stream shaper structure. The nozzle defines a discharge stream and has a discharge end. The “nozzle gap” will be understood to be defined by nozzle structure and to be located at the point in the nozzle creating the greatest restriction on the fluid flow path. The nozzle gap defines a gap discharge stream. The nozzle gap set nozzle discharge pressure and affects range and nozzle flow rate.) Jackson teaches two nozzle embodiments, that of FIGS. 8-13 and that of FIGS. 19-22. Both Jackson embodiments teach a nozzle defining a plurality of “radial discharge passageways” (62, 164) for the fluid. Both are taught to discharge multiple “jets” of fluid. The Jackson's nozzle design teaches, in other terms, a plurality of “solid bore discharge streams,” asserted to merge in flight downstream from the nozzle discharge.
By contrast, the instant nozzle structure and design defines an annular discharge stream. The gap defines an annular discharge stream. Jackson's “gap”, as determined by his figures above, and as compared to other “solid bore” nozzles, is located essentially at the nozzle discharge point. The instant gap by contrast, is located significantly upstream of the nozzle discharge point, located within a fluid conduit defined by the nozzle that is substantially vertical.
To summarize, the Jackson “hangar nozzles,” in particular the nozzle barrels themselves, are designed to bear weight, like the grating, and significant weight is known to pass on and over industrial floor grating. (In the Jackson design a weight bearing deflector is rested directly on a nozzle barrel flange, which in turn rests directly on the grating. The deflector and barrel flange bear weight.) Structuring a nozzle barrel to bear weight limits nozzle barrel flexibility and materials. The nozzle barrel of the instant design is structured together with the grating such that the nozzle barrel, and preferably a bafflehead, essentially bear no weight from objects passing over. Any bafflehead portion or deflector portion of the instant design that bears weight is designed to be part of the grating and does not bear down upon or rest upon the nozzle barrel. Weight passing over the grating is borne by the grating, thus, not a portion of the nozzle barrel. The design further provides the flexibility of being vertically adjustable in at least one sense, so as to be able at least to vary the nozzle K factor. With the instant design the nozzle barrel can be removed from the trench without disturbing the flush surface of the grating.
The instant floor nozzle system further preferably provides an annular discharge stream and an annular “gap” discharge stream, with the gap located significantly upstream of the nozzle discharge point. Preferably the gap is located where the fluid conduit defined by the nozzle is still substantially vertical. In applicant's experience such design characteristics enhance the performance and flexibility of the nozzle. The instant system preferably provides for adjusting the discharge gap of the nozzle and hence the discharge pressure and flow rate of the nozzle. Embodiments of the instant floor nozzle design also preferably provide for ease of removing the nozzle barrel permanently from the trench for repair or replacement while allowing grating and deflectors and caps to remain flush and in place, thus while continuing to provide a flush floor which creates no open personnel hazards.
It is anticipated that the shape of the discharge of the instant industrial floor nozzles, including grating portions, will be tailored by nozzle/grating structure and/or bafflehead structure to specifically cover specified equipment and/or walkways, such as by discharging directly up onto the equipment or by discharging at a 45 degree angle or by discharging laterally, and/or by including combinations of the above.
The gratings of the instant floor fire fighting nozzle system lie over trenches that provide stations for the nozzles and associated supply piping as well as a means for drainage. The nozzles and their associated piping are installed in the trenches. The instant system, in contrast to the Jackson system, is preferably designed such that while the gratings carry the weight of industrial equipment on, or passing over, the gratings, the nozzle barrels at least are attached to the gratings in a manner such that the barrels do not bear such weight. In a preferred embodiment a bafflehead is also designed without weight-bearing structure.
The instant floor nozzle discharges through a port or opening of the grating and portions of the grating may function as discharge shaping or discharge inhibiting or deflecting surfaces. The instant floor nozzle preferably includes a dislodgeable protective cap, resting on the grating over a nozzle barrel, to protect the nozzle from debris. The cap would be designed to blow off under water pressure.